The external side of the New York City booth in the Education Building was utilized for the exhibit of the Woman’s School of Design.  The exhibit consisted of a remarkable collection of original designs which, with one or two exceptions, were purchased by manufacturing firms as they stood on the wall.  Although this work did not come within the scope of the jury of group 1, I mention it here to emphasize the fact that the exhibits of art schools in the Education Building showed very remarkable progress on the part of women in the art of designing.

This survey had been confined almost entirely to the exhibits of the United States.  It need hardly be said that in no foreign country do women play so important a part in education, and on account of the mode of installation it would have been impossible to distinguish between their work and that of men in the foreign exhibits.  Mention may, however, be made of the fact that the exhibits of French industrial schools for girls and of the French lycees for girls, which were of a very high order, were substantially the work of women.  In the Swedish section there was a very admirable exhibit of secondary schools for girls and coeducational schools, which had been planned and installed by Miss Mathilda Widegren.  In the English section were shown very remarkable specimens of art work in jewelry and silver repousse designed and executed by women students.  As the foreign exhibits specified did not come under the jury of group 1, I am unable to report the awards which they received.

The increasing recognition of the value of women’s services is indicated by the increase in the proportion of women called to serve upon the exposition juries.  The jury of group 1 included three women, of whom two were foreigners, namely, Miss Elizabeth Fischer, a teacher from Halle, Germany, and Miss Mathilda Widegren, associate principal of a private school in Sweden.  These three members were all women of great experience in the matters with respect to which they were called to judge, and their abilities were most cordially and heartily recognized by their colleagues.  Indeed, in view of the place in education which is now accorded to women in our own country and in the leading countries of Europe, I should unhesitatingly say that it is for the advantage of women and of society in general that their work should not be separately exhibited, but should rather form an integral part of a collective exhibit.  This principle, indeed, might not apply to certain specialties which have heretofore been exclusively or almost exclusively practiced by men, or which (like artistic needlework) have a particularly feminine character.

    ANNA TOLMAN SMITH,
    Member of the International Jury, Group 1,
    Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

    BUREAU OF EDUCATION,
    Washington, D.C.